Aid still failing to reach neediest

Friday 31 December 2004 19.28 EST
First published on Friday 31 December 2004 19.28 EST

The global effort to ease the suffering of the millions of people stricken by the tsunami disaster was stepped up again yesterday as it became clear that aid was still not getting to those most in need.

Naval vessels, two of them British, were heading for the region last night to lend assistance as thousands of tonnes of aid continued to be flown in and the US raised its aid tenfold to $350m (£184m).

But UN officials admitted that they were deeply concerned about aid not reaching devastated areas such as the Aceh province of Sumatra and the coast of Sri Lanka.

Lack of coordination and transport bottlenecks were exacerbated in some areas by bad weather.

The official death toll remains at about 124,000, but last night the UN warned it was approaching 150,000, and, after visiting the region, Sweden's foreign minister, Laila Freivalds, said it would rise to nearer 200,000.

The UN's humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said: "What we see is that the figures may be approaching 150,000 dead. The vast majority of those are in Indonesia and Aceh, which is the least assessed area because of logistical constraints ...

"We will never ever have the absolute definite figure because there are many fishermen and villages which have just gone."

Indonesia says 100,000 people may have been killed there alone. About 5,000 foreigners, mainly Europeans, are still missing. The official British toll rose to 34.

The main British appeal, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), said the public had given £45m - easily a record - and many more millions had been given to individual charities.

People watching New Year's Eve fireworks in Trafalgar Square were asked to observe a two-minute silence just before midnight, and celebrations across the world were muted. A three-minute silence will be observed in Britain at noon on Wednesday and flags will be flown at half mast.

The deputy prime minister, John Prescott, defended Tony Blair's decision not to cut short his holiday. "He has been in control of it whether he is sitting in the chair where I am in the cabinet or whether he is sitting there and giving us instructions," he said.

But despite having given the biggest amount after the US - £50m - Britain has not yet been invited to an international summit in Indonesia on Thursday to draw up a strategy for rebuilding communities destroyed by the tsunami.